Our zany million dollar twins still livin’ it large

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

By Jonathan deBurca Butler

THERE has been an eerie silence over the airwaves and televisions of Ireland in the last few months.

That silence became more obvious last Friday week when the Late Late Show hosted the annual Eurosong competition without two of its most vital elements. The question on everybody’s lipstick was — where the heck are Jedward?

Well, in Sweden, it seems - where they have been acting as style advisors to the Swedish Eurovision selection.

The twins, who are big in Scandinavia, flew out last week to perform on the highly popular Swedish version of our old ‘Eurosong’ contest - watched by more Swedes than the Eurovision itself.

Since cartwheeling, and sometimes stumbling, their way to fame on series six of the X Factor in 2009, the 21-year-old twins from Lucan have rarely been off Irish screens. Whether it was winding up Tubridy on the aforementioned Late Late or jumping all over Vincent Browne’s doomed Friday night show, the Grimes boys have managed to wangle their way into every nook and cranny of Irish television and radio. Their PR machine has been relentless and that is perhaps why they have decided to give us a bit of a break — phew — and head across the seas to people who might appreciate and understand them better.

They may not have conquered the hearts of the Eurovision voting public, but Jedward seem determined to conquer the States and Canada, after already taking on Europe. And if reports, interviews and updates from their own extremely lively twitter account are anything to go by, the boys are doing the business.

Not only are the pair “having the coolest time ever”, but they are also rubbing shoulders, and a little more by the looks of it, with stars such as Katy Perry who they attended a post-Grammy party with a few weeks back. “Katy see you again we’re all fireworks,” they later tweeted.

The boys are old pals with American Pie actress Tara Reid, who they shared a Celebrity Big Brother house with, and they were recently spotted dining with her and their mammy in Beverly Hills. “We just went valentines shopping with @TaraReid,” they gushed over Twitter. “She helped us pick some awesome stuff! We got a teddy bear that sings sexy and I know it”.

Amazingly, the music press are taking note of the pouty-mouthed lads from Lucan. And they seem to be somewhat charmed too. Well-regarded Canadian music channel MuchMusic have had the twins on twice recently and the boys also made an appearance on Canada AM.

They may not have made its cover (yet) but Rolling Stone magazine have interviewed the boys about their plans for world domination and seem keen.

“For all you yanks watching this who are unaware of the awesomeness that is Jedward, you are about to get schooled with a crash course in all things Jepic,” the magazine says of the interview.

The article points out that “Jedward have recorded a single with Vanilla Ice, represented Ireland twice in the Eurovision Song Contest, competed on Britain’s Celebrity Big Brother, hosted two children’s TV shows, recorded three albums, completed the LA Marathon, carried the Olympic torch, danced onstage with Britney Spears and performed for President Obama.”

They might have added that for all their perceived eejitry the boys are estimated to have earned somewhere in the region of stg£6m in the last three years - and being named as the 24th highest earning UK reality TV stars. They have, however, been dropped by record labels on two occasions, most recently back in January by Universal. Jedward reacted by recording nine new songs in five hours in a Los Angeles studio.

Jedward have over 770,000 followers on Twitter who they regularly invite to engage with them.

Alas, the United States’ gain is Ireland’s loss and this year the Eurovision will be a slightly duller affair without Jedward’s ridiculous quiffs and outrageously bling outfits, though they will be going along to oversee the Swedish entrants’ costume choice.

For their part, Jedward have weighed in fully behind Ireland’s representative. “So excited that Ryan Dolan will be representing Ireland in Eurovision 2013!” they tweeted on hearing of Dolan’s victory. “Absolutely love the song! fingers crossed for ya.”